TL;DR

• A Texas A&M professor was told to remove Plato’s Symposium readings due to new rules banning “sexual orientation” or “gender ideology” in coursework.
• The banned sections include ancient discussions of same-sex love.
• The policy change follows a prior campus controversy involving LGBTQ-themed course content.
• The professor argues the order violates First Amendment protections and academic freedom.
• Critics fear the rules weaponize homophobia and suppress centuries-old philosophical texts.

Texas A&M Professor Ordered to Drop Plato Because It’s ‘Too Gay’ for New Sexuality Rules

Texas A&M University has taken its ongoing crusade against anything resembling LGBTQ+ content to a surreal new frontier: Plato. Yes, the ancient Greek philosopher who helped invent Western thought is now apparently too “woke” for administrators trying to enforce sweeping bans on material touching race, gender, or sexual orientation.

Professor Martin Peterson said he was told Tuesday to scrub portions of Plato’s Symposium from his philosophy syllabus. The instruction came from department chair Kristi Sweet, who cited new university rules restricting any material that “advocates race or gender ideology, or topics related to sexual orientation or gender identity.” In short, the university’s solution to ancient Greek scholarship on love appears to be—cut the gay parts.

And those “gay parts” are, of course, central texts:
Aristophanes’ origin story of love, which describes humans once being dual beings—some same-sex—and longing for their lost halves; and Diotima’s ladder of love, which openly acknowledges same-sex desire as part of philosophical exploration. These passages are foundational to Western discussions of eros, morality, intimacy, and the human condition. But under the new Texas A&M rules? Forbidden fruit.

The Policy Shift That Sparked the Censorship

This clampdown didn’t come out of nowhere. In November, the Board of Regents rewrote institutional policy after a campus uproar surrounding another professor, Melissa McCoul, who used LGBTQ+ themes in a children’s literature class. A viral video of a student confronting her fueled outrage and political pressure, culminating in McCoul’s firing and the resignation of President Mark Welsh.

Those rules now prohibit coursework that touches sexual orientation or gender identity in ways administrators deem ideological. The result: even material written 2,400 years ago about same-sex love is suddenly treated like political advocacy.

Peterson pushed back, arguing the ban is unconstitutional. “Texas A&M is a public institution bound by the First Amendment,” he wrote, citing Supreme Court precedent that academic freedom “does not tolerate laws that cast a pall of orthodoxy over the classroom.”

The Real Impact: Academic Freedom on Life Support

Let’s be absolutely clear: banning Plato for referencing same-sex love is not curriculum oversight—it’s censorship. It rewrites ancient history to appease modern political discomfort. It undermines the study of ethics. It reduces philosophy to sanitized PR copy. And it signals to LGBTQ+ students that their identities are so unwelcome that even historical acknowledgment of their existence must be erased.

This isn’t about protecting students. It’s about suppressing anything that contradicts a state-level moral agenda targeting queer people. Same-sex relationships have been part of philosophical texts for millennia. Pretending otherwise won’t change history—it just cheapens education.

What This Means for LGBTQ+ Communities

When universities ban discussions of queer themes—even those rooted in antiquity—it tells LGBTQ+ students and faculty that their identities are unmentionable, inappropriate, or dangerous. That message doesn’t stay within the classroom walls; it emboldens discrimination and isolates the very students institutions claim to serve.

And the irony? Symposium has long been cherished for its exploration of love that transcends boundaries—something queer people have always understood intimately. Erasing those ideas doesn’t just diminish philosophy; it erases LGBTQ+ heritage.

Texas A&M’s attempt to declare Plato “too gay” for coursework is not only absurd—it’s part of a broader, chilling trend of legislating queerness out of public life. And as always, queer students, queer faculty, and queer scholarship bear the brunt.

Academic freedom isn’t just under threat; it’s being carted out of the seminar room. And unless educators and advocates push back, Plato won’t be the last casualty.